2008-02-11: GLBT Professionals to Receive NOGLSTP Awards Recognizing Their Contributions to the Fields of Science and Technology

PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
Date: February 11, 2008

GLBT Professionals to Receive NOGLSTP Awards Recognizing Their Contributions to the Fields of Science and Technology

We are pleased to announce the 2008 NOGLSTP Recognition Awards recipients: Arnold M. Zwicky (GLBT Scientist of the Year), Michael J. Steinberg (GLBT Engineer of the Year), and Michael Falk (GLBTA Educator of the Year). These people will be honored at the 5th Annual NOGLSTP Recognition Awards Ceremony at a reception sponsored by Raytheon and held during the American Association for the Advancement of Science Annual Meeting in Boston. This event will be held Sunday, February 17, 4-6 pm at the Sheraton Boston, 3rd Floor, Berkeley. All interested people are welcome to attend this reception and awards ceremony; registration for the AAAS Annual Meeting is not required.

The NOGLSTP Recognition Awards were established as a means of identifying, honoring, and documenting the contributions of outstanding GLBT science, engineering and technology professionals, as well as corporations, academic institutions, and businesses that support GLBT professionals in the fields of science and technology.

2008 NOGLSTP GLBT Scientist of the Year:
Arnold Zwicky, Ph.D.

Dr. Arnold Zwicky has been chosen to receive the NOGLSTP 2008 GLBT Scientist of the Year Award because of his outstanding achievements in the field of linguistics. Arnold Zwicky has authored over 120 professional publications in his long and distinguished career. His research centers on the theory of syntax and word structure; variation in syntax; and the advice literature on grammar, style, and usage. His entire life has been dedicated to the detailed study of language, and to the principle that the details matter—the aim of science is not lofty grand principles of uncertain precision but rather close analysis of fine-grained patterns of facts. His training began in pure mathematics and Sanskrit, the classical language of ancient India, and continues in the quest of a quintessentially scientific attitude to the phenomenon of human linguistic communication in all its complexity and variety.

As an openly gay linguist in academia and science, Dr. Zwicky has been an excellent role model for his students and colleagues. Dr. Zwicky is currently a Visiting Professor of Linguistics, Stanford University and a Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Linguistics, Ohio State University. Dr. Zwicky received an A.B. in mathematics from Princton University, magna cum laude (1962) and his Ph.D. in linguistics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1965). After teaching four years at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, he taught at Ohio State University and was named a Distinguished University Professor in 1989, retiring in 1995. Since 1985, Zwicky has been a visiting professor at Stanford University. He has been active in the Linguistic Society of America (LSA president, 1992) and has taught or worked on research projects at many of the Linguistic Institutes of the LSA, from 1968 through 2007. He held the Sapir Professorship at the 1999 Institute, at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. His many honors and awards include: Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1992); Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science (1998); Fellow Linguistic Society of America (2006), and Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science (2007). He has held Fellowships at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (Stanford U. 1981) and the Stanford Humanities Center (2005-6), University of Edinburgh, University of Sussex (Fulbright research professorship), and the Beijing Language Institute, Guggenheim Fellowship (1972), Distinguished Scholar Award (OSU 1987), OSU Exemplary Faculty Award (1994).

Dr. Zwicky’s work has included mentoring other LGBT academics; supporting the LGBT linguistics community by founding, publicizing, participating in OUTIL, the Out in Linguistics mailing list, and publishing articles on language usage in the popular gay press. He is a past board member of NOGLSTP.

2008 NOGLSTP GLBT Engineer of the Year:
Michael Steinberg, M.S.

Mr. Michael Steinberg was chosen to receive the NOGLSTP 2008 Engineer of the Year award because of his outstanding technical achievements and leadership as an out, gay engineer in the defense industry. Mr. Steinberg’s research and development work over the last 22 years at Raytheon Missile Systems is highly classified state-of-the-art engineering and is of great importance to the United States Department of Defense. He has served as the Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) Technical Director for Special Programs Development (SPD), and later became the SPD Program Manager and Chief Engineer, responsible for both the technical and management aspects of the effort. This involved all aspects of weapon system design and development, including designing the logic that makes the weapon work, testing the software, supporting system field tests, writing proposals for system enhancements, and leading and mentoring teams of engineers. Mr. Steinberg also has developed training material and is a key instructor working with US warfighters to make sure they understand the technical performance and usage of extremely complex missile systems. He has been a Raytheon Engineering Fellow (near the top of the Raytheon Technical ladder) for 5 years and is currently the Deputy Program Manager for Air-to-Air Advanced Programs, directing over 250 engineers and business personnel.

Mr. Steinberg is a leader in the LGBT community, serving as Chairperson of the Tucson Jewish Federation’s LGBT Jewish Inclusion Project Steering Committee, which functions to improve the relationship between Jewish religious organizations and the LGBT members of that community. He has served as President of Congregation Beth El Binah, the GLBT Jewish Congregation in Dallas, TX. Mike and his partner of 25 years, Alan Taylor, also a Raytheon engineer, are major fundraisers for several organizations in Tucson, AZ which include the Tucson Interfaith HIV/AIDS Network (TIHAN), the Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation (SAAF), and Wingspan, the Southern Arizona GLBT Community Center. They have helped move the Raytheon Missile Systems AIDSWalk team to the top of the corporate fundraising list at this annual fundraising event held by SAAF. At Raytheon Missile Systems, they were part of a small group that initiated the formation of the local Raytheon GLBTA Employee Resource Group in Tucson.

2008 NOGLSTP GLBT Educator of the Year:
Michael Falk, Ph.D.

Dr. Falk is currently an Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and of Applied Physics at the University of Michigan. He will be moving to John Hopkins University in the fall of 2008. He received his BA with honors in Physics (1990) and his MSE in Computer Science from John Hopkins University (1991), and earned his PhD in Physics from the University of California, Santa Barbara (1998). He has been a Visiting Scholar at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (1999) and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University (1998-2000). Dr. Falk has over 45 professional publications in his research area, which involves using computer simulation to understand materials processes on a fundamental level. This interest has led him to investigate how glasses bend and break, how mechanical stress affects the processing and lifetime of semiconductor devices and the basic phenomena that lead to friction and wear.

Throughout his distinguished studies and 10 year academic career, Dr. Falk has been open and out in the LGBTA community both on and off campus serving as a role model for diversity, an exemplary educator and a leader to his students, colleagues and community. His untiring efforts– through student organization development, community building and rigorous advocacy in his professional societies, and educational venues — has been remarkable given his demanding schedule as a faculty member and researcher.

NOGLSTP is a national organization of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people (and their advocates) employed or interested in scientific or high technology fields. NOGLSTP’s goals include dialogue with professional organizations, disseminating information, improving our members employment and professional environment, opposing anti-queer discrimination and stereotypes, educating the queer, scientific, and general communities, and fostering inter-city contacts among our members. National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientists Inc. is a non-profit educational organization under IRS section 501(c)(3), an affiliate of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and Affiliated Partner Plus of Mentornet®, a sustaining member of the National Postdoctoral Association, an endorsing society of National Engineering Week, and a founding member of the E-Week Diversity Council.

NOGLSTP is:

a professional society that educates and advocates for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer students and professionals in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics